Google Vault API
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For Agents
Manage legal matters, holds, searches, and exports across Google Workspace so an agent can automate eDiscovery and retention workflows without manual console clicks.
Use for: I need to create a Vault matter for an HR investigation, Place a hold on a departing employee's Gmail and Drive data, Search for messages mentioning a project codename across the legal team, List every export attached to an active matter
Not supported: Does not handle live mailbox automation, file editing, or user provisioning — use for eDiscovery matters, holds, searches, and exports across Workspace only.
The Google Vault API provides programmatic retention and eDiscovery for Google Workspace data including Gmail, Drive, Chat, Meet, Voice, and Groups. It lets compliance teams create matters, place legal holds on accounts and organizational units, run searches across a domain, and export the resulting evidence for review. Access requires Vault privileges and matter-level sharing, and every export, hold, and search action is auditable.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Google Vault API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Google Vault API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Google Vault API.
Open and close matters that scope an eDiscovery investigation
Place legal holds on specific accounts or entire organizational units across Workspace services
Run domain-wide searches across Gmail, Drive, Chat, Voice, and Groups within a matter
Export held data with metadata for review in third-party eDiscovery platforms
Share a matter with collaborating reviewers and revoke access when an investigation closes
List exports and download them once Vault has finished compiling the archive
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Google Vault API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Departing Employee Legal Hold
When an employee departs under disputed circumstances, Workspace administrators automate a legal hold across the user's Gmail, Drive, and Chat data so messages and files cannot be permanently deleted. The Google Vault API creates a matter, attaches a hold scoped to the user account, and reports back when retention is in effect. This replaces a manual console workflow that typically takes a compliance analyst 20-30 minutes per departure.
Create a matter named Departure-Smith, place a hold on user smith@example.com covering MAIL and DRIVE, and confirm the hold is active
eDiscovery Search and Export
Legal teams responding to a litigation request use the Vault API to scope a search by custodian list, date range, and keyword query, then export the matching messages and files for outside counsel review. The API exposes the full lifecycle: create matter, add accounts to a hold, run a saved query, kick off an export, and poll until the export bundle is ready for download. Exports include metadata required for chain-of-custody documentation.
Create a matter, run a search for emails containing project-falcon between 2026-01-01 and 2026-03-31, and start an MBOX export
Compliance Audit Reporting
Compliance and security teams enumerate active matters and holds to produce monthly audits showing which custodians are under preservation. The Vault API returns matters paginated by state and exposes hold metadata including affected services, reducing audit prep from a multi-hour manual exercise to a scripted report. Combined with Workspace admin reporting, this gives a single source of truth for regulators.
List every matter in OPEN state, enumerate its holds, and write a CSV of custodian-to-service mappings
AI Agent Compliance Assistant
An AI agent integrated through Jentic responds to compliance prompts like 'preserve everything from user X for the next 90 days' by discovering the Vault hold operations via intent search, loading the relevant request schemas, and executing them with the right matter and account scope. Because Vault uses OAuth 2.0 with admin scopes, Jentic isolates the consent token in the MAXsystem vault so the agent never holds the raw credential.
Search Jentic for create a matter and place a hold, then chain those operations for a named user
Key Endpoints
32 endpoints — the google vault api provides programmatic retention and ediscovery for google workspace data including gmail, drive, chat, meet, voice, and groups.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
POST
/v1/matters
Create a new eDiscovery matter
GET
/v1/matters
List matters filtered by state
POST
/v1/matters/{matterId}/holds
Add a hold to a matter
GET
/v1/matters/{matterId}/holds
List holds in a matter
POST
/v1/matters/{matterId}/exports
Start an export of held data
GET
/v1/matters/{matterId}/exports
List exports for a matter
POST
/v1/matters/{matterId}/savedQueries
Create a saved search query
POST
/v1/matters
Create a new eDiscovery matter
GET
/v1/matters
List matters filtered by state
POST
/v1/matters/{matterId}/holds
Add a hold to a matter
GET
/v1/matters/{matterId}/holds
List holds in a matter
POST
/v1/matters/{matterId}/exports
Start an export of held data
GET
/v1/matters/{matterId}/exports
List exports for a matter
POST
/v1/matters/{matterId}/savedQueries
Create a saved search query
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
Google Vault OAuth tokens with the ediscovery scope are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault (MAXsystem). Agents receive scoped access tokens — raw OAuth tokens never enter the agent's context, which matters because the ediscovery scope grants broad legal-hold powers.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic with natural-language intents like 'place a hold on a user' and Jentic returns the create-hold operation with its full input schema, including the corpus enum and accounts array, so the agent can construct a valid request without reading Google's discovery doc.
Time to first call
Direct Vault integration: 3-5 days for OAuth domain-wide delegation setup, scope review, and matter sharing logic. Through Jentic: under 1 hour — search, load schema, execute.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Google Vault API through Jentic.
What authentication does the Google Vault API use?
The Google Vault API uses OAuth 2.0 with the ediscovery scope family (https://www.googleapis.com/auth/ediscovery and ediscovery.readonly). Through Jentic, the OAuth token is stored encrypted in the MAXsystem vault and only a scoped reference is exposed to the agent at execution time.
Can I place a legal hold on a Workspace user with the Google Vault API?
Yes. Use POST /v1/matters/{matterId}/holds with a corpus of MAIL, DRIVE, GROUPS, HANGOUTS_CHAT, or VOICE and an accounts list. The same endpoint accepts an orgUnit object to hold an entire organizational unit instead of named accounts.
What are the rate limits for the Google Vault API?
Vault uses standard Workspace per-project quotas with a default of around 1,500 requests per minute per project. Long-running operations like exports do not count against per-minute quotas but are bounded by daily export size limits documented in the Vault admin help center.
How do I run an eDiscovery export through Jentic with the Google Vault API?
Install Jentic with pip install jentic, search for create vault export, load the schema for POST /v1/matters/{matterId}/exports, then execute with the matter ID, query, and export format (MBOX, PST, or individual files for Drive). Poll GET /v1/matters/{matterId}/exports/{exportId} until status is COMPLETED to retrieve the download URLs.
Does the Google Vault API support exporting Drive and Chat data, not just Gmail?
Yes. The corpus field on a search or hold accepts MAIL, DRIVE, GROUPS, HANGOUTS_CHAT, and VOICE. Exports return data in service-specific formats — MBOX or PST for mail, individual files plus metadata for Drive, and Chat conversation archives.
Why does my Vault API call return PERMISSION_DENIED even with a valid token?
Vault enforces matter-level access on top of OAuth scopes. The authenticated account must either own the matter, have it shared, or hold the View All Matters privilege at the Workspace admin level. Share the matter with the service account or grant the privilege in the admin console.
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